Carlos takes final crack at PH Am title

Jobim Carlos has done so many things in a colorful amateur career, save for one: Win a national individual title.

The soft-spoken 21-year-old tries one last time to win the Philippine Amateur Stroke Play championship when it tees off today at the Aoki layout of Eagle Ridge in Cavite.

Carlos, whose best finish in this event was second to Korean Wang Jeung-hun in 2011, will be coming into the 72-hole event fresh from topping the qualifying of the ICTSI Philippine Golf Tour.

Justin Quiban finished second to Carlos in the qualifying and is also entered, even as LJ Go, Cebu Country Club’s spearhead in the Philippine Airlines Interclub, shoots for a repeat after winning at Wack Wack East last year.

Foreign entries from Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore are also seeing action, even as the ladies’ field lost a ton of talent after the ICTSI squad failed to secure entry into the event.

Circumstances surrounding the absence of the likes of Princess Superal and Pauline del Rosario are still cloudy at this point, though sources said that it has something to do with the organizing National Golf Association of the Philippines and ICTSI not coming to terms.

Rupert Zaragosa, the pint-sized winner of six national titles out of Canlubang, still looms as one of the players to beat.